Lot 9: Giovanni Alberti , Borgo San Sepolcro 1558 - 1601 Rome design for a decorative frieze with allegorical figures of geometry and astronomy Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk; inscribed, lower right: SIXTUS.V.P.M ./ A.N.V.M.D.X.C ; bears old

Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk; inscribed, lower right: SIXTUS.V.P.M ./ A.N.V.M.D.X.C ; bears old attribution in brown ink, lower right: GIO: ALBERTi ; on the backing, bears inscription on the remains of the Resta mount: 56 GIO: ALBERTI DAL BORGO S.SEP O MOR 1601

measurements note 177 by 286mm

Padre Sebastiano Resta (L.2992, his numbering, lower right: l. 208);
With Hazlitt, Gooden and Fox, London; acquired 1997

This study of an elaborate frieze is linked with two other studies attributed to Giovanni Alberti, a member of a large and prolific family of artists. The first, formerly in a private collection in Prato, was first published with the attribution to Giovanni by Kristina Herrmann-Fiore in her exhibition catalogue: Disegni degli Alberti.υ1 This drawing appears very similar to the present study and most probably relates to the same commission for Pope Sixtus V Peretti (1585-1590), as it bears his coat of arms. The Horvitz drawing, which concentrates on the allegorical figures of Astronomy and Geometry flanked by putti, bears an inscription with this pontiff's name, and the date of 1590. Similar motifs were used by the Alberti brothers for the decoration of the Sala del Concistoro in the Vatican Palace. The second study that is particularly close in style to the present drawing is in the Louvre (inv.no.1371).υ2 Traditionally ascribed to Cesare Nebbia, the Louvre sheet was correctly attributed by Philip Pouncey; it relates to another Roman commission received by the Alberti brothers, the decoration of the Palazzo Ruggieri-Serafini, executed in 1591. An additional drawing from the Alberti bottega -- given by Kristina Herrmann-Fiore to Giovanni's brother, Cherubino -- employs a similar decorative structure for another frieze.υ3 1. K. Herrmann-Fiore, Disegni degli Alberti, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Villa Farnesina, 1983-4 , pp. 104-5, reproduced, rif. 48, 2. John Gere, Il Manierismo a Roma, Milan 1971, pp. 90-1, reproduced p. 74, fig. 31 3. Hermann-Fiore, op.cit., pp. 104-5, no. 48, reproduced